MJTC Blog

Next week Rachel Calof opens starring Kate Fuglei. We caught up with her to talk about her midwestern roots, her favorite roles, and projects she's looking forward to:

MJTC: RACHEL CALOF was a project you worked on for 8 years; can you tell us about the development of this memoir turned musical?

KF: In 2004, a friend who was a docent at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage here in Los Angeles told me about an amazing memoir she had come across in her time working in the museum bookstore. She brought it to me knowing I was an
actress and with the thought that it would make a great one person show. I read the
book in one sitting, staying up until 4am one night. I was totally captivated by
not only the story but by the very specific voice contained therein. She had a
great sense of humor, irony, humanity, and intelligence that came across in every
sentence. I think I fell in love with Rachel herself first and then with her
captivating story. I asked my dearly beloved father-in-law, Jack LaZebnik, a
talented playwright, to adapt the memoir. It was his last work before he succumbed to prostate cancer in 2005. Raising children intervened but, when I was rehearsing
for a national Broadway tour in NYC, I brought the material to a dear friend and
immensely talented composer, Leslie Steinweiss. We talked about how music for the
show could express Rachel's inner thoughts and deepest desires. He wrote the first
song, a sweeping, epic song about the trip to America on a boat, and I knew that
music would be an integral aspect of the piece. My husband, Ken LaZebnik, re-imagined
the adaptation using some of his father's imagery and adding his own poetic and
specific insights. On tour, I was able to meet one of Rachel's relatives, David
Calof, and actually hold the original manuscript. Finally, a dear friend and
honored colleague, Ellen Pressman, came on board as the director of the piece after
offering to hold a reading in her own home. Rachel Calof: A Memoir With Music was
originally seen at the Ensemble Studio Theater/LA as part of their Winterfest,
Pepperdine University, the New York International Fringe Festival. At one of the
performances at Pepperdine's Raitt Hall, twenty members of the Calof family were in
attendance, including her granddaughter, Joyce Aronson. When Joyce gave us her seal
of approval, it was a joyous feeling; our sole purpose has been to honor this woman,
and to tell her story with specificity and honesty.

MJTC: You lived in Minnesota for a period of time. What's it like returning to the area for RACHEL CALOF?

KF: I always feel as though the Twin Cities is the place that healed me, made me who I am, influenced me as an artist beyond all measure. I have never seen anything to
match The Festival of Our Lady of the Ships at the Children's Theatre, directed by
John Clark Donahue, or The Three Sisters directed by Liviu Ciulei or The Seagull directed by Lucien Pintilie or Camille, directed by Garland Wright...I could go on
and on. The innovations and artistic individuality of theaters like Illusion,
Theatre de la Juene Lune, and Mixed Blood fired my imagination and gave me an
education in theatricality, boldness, and vision like no other. Involvement with the
Playwrights' Center introduced me to writers and artists who are still my friends
and colleagues. I have a deep respect for the artists and artistic innovators in
this community and incredible, lifelong gratitude for their influence on my life. I
met my husband and the theater colleagues that formed my life for the next ten years
and beyond, in my time in New York, while at the Guthrie. So I am excited, humbled
and not a little intimidated to come back to this amazing and highly sophisticated
artistic community.

MJTC: Do you have a favorite character that you've played?

KF: I would have to say that, hands down, the favorite character I have played was Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire. I had great advice from one of America's premiere
actresses, Helen Carey, who, by the way, got her start working with Tyrone Guthrie
at the Guthrie Theater. We were doing Crime and Punishment together at Arena Stage
and she had just finished playing the role. I remember Helen talking about how
smart, persistent, funny and ingenious Blanche was. Most people don't perceive her
in this way. But it makes a whole lot of sense. I never forgot this interpretation
and when I was offered the chance to play it years later, I made great use of Helen
Carey's advice. I love the construction of the play and the fact that once you get
on the train, Tennessee Williams just takes you right down the road. I love the
fact that in every scene in the play, something very physical happens and this
physicality acts on the actors in the play in a very very visceral way. Everything
about the play is, to me, perfection in playwriting and character construction. One
of my most favorite, and surprising, theater experiences, was touring with Spring Awakening. I had expected the masses of kids on the tour to be a big headache, or
at least that is what all of my adult actor friends expected. Instead, I found a
group of the kindest, most amazingly dedicated, passionate young people I have ever
known. They all became like my children and we keep in touch to this day. They
never went out onstage and gave anything less than 100%. When I think of their
dedication at such a young age, it humbles and inspires me.

MJTC: What do you find is the most rewarding part of your work?

KF: The most rewarding part of my work is to have the chance to try to understand how another human being thinks and
behaves and to represent that as truthfully as I can. Also to tell stories that try
to get to the truth about what it is to be human in all its mystery and complexity.
Doing this kind of work ultimately makes us all so vulnerable at various times. I
am constantly humbled and amazed by meeting and working with colleagues in this
business who put so much heart and soul into what they are doing, whether it is an
actor or a make-up person or a grip on a set who is meticulously taking care of his
equipment, setting up for the next shot at 2am after a fourteen hour day.
Ultimately, it is a profession of people who care about what they do passionately
and I feel one of the greatest rewards is coming into contact with these kinds of
people. When I am not working, I miss them terribly. When I am working again, I
feel like I am with my "tribe." This is a great reward.

MJTC: What upcoming projects are you currently working on?

KF: I have been studying with a brilliant teacher and singer, Karen Morrow, and she has encouraged me to work in the form of cabaret. So, I am working on a cabaret
performance piece. I also have two indie films that will be premiering this fall;
one, a comedy, entitled Muffin-Top: A Love Story and the other, decidedly a drama,
called Escape from Polygamy. I will have a guest appearance on a new Showtime
series premiering this fall about the sex researchers Masters and Johnson entitled
Masters of Sex. Finally Ellen Pressman and I are in the beginning stages of
producing an indie film comedy entitled Mom/Dom written by Ken LaZebnik, in which I
will play a widowed single woman searching for love in the San Fernando Valley.

MJTC: What fills your time apart from acting?

KF: I work in the theater, creating my own pieces and also doing plays written and created by others. I am also a part of the television, film and commercial
community in Los Angeles, which is an entirely different beast. The business side
of the business in Los Angeles takes up a fair amount of time and is both rewarding,
curious and full of driven, fascinating people. I am the mother of two sons, and
have been very much a part of their lives. My eldest just graduated from the United
States Military Academy at West Point and is beginning his military career currently
at Ft. Benning, GA. He and I just completed two cross country road trips; one from
West Point to Los Angeles, and the other from Los Angeles to Ft. Benning, GA. My
younger son is very interested in politics and just helped get Eric Garcetti, the
new mayor in Los Angeles, elected. I have loved supporting them in their lives and
I enjoy just being around them. They make me laugh.

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company is an award winning professional theater that produces new, contemporary regional and world premiere plays and musicals with universal themes for a diverse audience from Minneapolis, St. Paul, and the Midwest region.

Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company ignites the hearts and minds of people of all cultural backgrounds by producing theater of the highest artistic standards. Rooted in Jewish content, our work explores differences, illuminates commonalities, and fosters greater understanding among all people.